Men's Basketball

Men travel to San Diego Saturday for 5:30 pm TV game

Santa Clara (9-16, 1-7 WCC) plays at San Diego (9-15, 2-6 WCC)
on Sat., Feb. 6 at 5:30 pm. The USD game will be televised on
COMCAST and called by Steve Quis and Jim Brogan. The game is on
Comcast Sports Net Plus in the Bay Area (COMCAST digital channel
410, AT&T Universe 768, DirecTV 699 and Dish Network 441).

It is the two team's 67th career meeting. In a series that began
with a 66-65 victory by USD on Dec., 19, 1963, Santa Clara leads
the all-time series, 36-30. San Diego won 55-46 in the two team's
the last meeting in Santa Clara on Jan. 8, 2010. The two teams
split the series last season, with both winning on each other's
home floor before Santa Clara defeated USD at the WCC Championship,
80-69, behind John
Bryant's 27-rebound performance. USD swept the season series in
2007-08, Santa Clara swept the season in 2006-07 and the two split
in 2005-06.

Holding Saint Mary's more than eight points under its average
wasn't enough as Santa Clara fell 74-62 in Moraga on Thursday
night. Marc
Trasolini scored 18 points and added five rebounds; and Robert
Smith added 16 points and three assists. Troy
Payne led the Bronco effort with seven rebounds, four steals
and three blocks.

San Diego has lost six of its last seven games, including a
72-70 overtime loss to San Francisco on Thursday evening at Jenny
Craig Pavilion. Brandon Johnson scored a team-high 25 points and
Chris Lewis splashed an overtime-forcing three with 11.8 seconds
remaining in regulation to push the game to overtime. The two teams
both had nine threes, 30 rebounds and 14 turnovers, but USF was
11-13 from the line while USD was 11-19.

Listen Here

The San Diego game will be broadcast via the Bronco Radio
Network on both KDOW 1220 AM and Broncos All-Access on the web at
www.SantaClaraBroncos.com with the pre-game beginning at 5:15 pm.
Anthony Passarelli is in his third season as the Broncos'
play-by-play announcer.

Coach Kerry
Keating can be heard on KDOW 1220 AM on Sunday evenings from
8:30-9 pm in his radio spotlight on The Sports Ramble, hosted by
Chetan Chaudhari. If you are out of the listening area, KDOW is
streamed online live at www.1220kdow.com.

Leaders

SCU has two active players averaging double figures: Marc
Trasolini (14.1 ppg) and Robert
Smith (12.4 ppg). Kevin
Foster averaged 19.8 ppg in his first six games, but he is out
for the season with a broken foot. In league play, Smith leads the
team with 14.0 ppg and Trasolini has 13.8 ppg. Smith has scored in
double figures 18 of the last 21 games and Trasolini has hit double
figures 20 times this season, including hitting 18+ in seven games
with two double-doubles (three career double-doubles).

Smith leads the team with 3.1 apg, including 3.4 apg in WCC
play. He tied his career-high with six assists at LMU. Trasolini
has 1.7 bpg; and swatted a career-high five blocks vs. No. 8
Gonzaga. Niyi
Harrison and Trasolini are both averaging a team-leading 1.8
bpg in league play.

Trasolini averages a team-leading 6.1 rpg and Troy
Payne is second with 5.8 rpg. Payne has 7+ rebounds in 12
games, including nine at Pepperdine and vs. New Hampshire and
Fresno State; and he posted a career-high 15 vs. Menlo.

In the WCC

The Broncos are No. 2 in WCC overall statistics with 7.2 steals
per game as of Feb. 5. They are No. 3 in blocked shots (4.0) and
offensive rebounds per game (12.0).

Marc
Trasolini is in the top 10 of six categories in overall WCC
statistics. He is No. 2 with 1.7 bpg; No. 6 in shooting .527 from
the field; No. 8 with 2.1 orpg and in free throw percentage at 81.0
percent; and No. 9 with 14.1 ppg and 6.1 rpg.

In WCC statistics, Payne, Trasolini, Harrison, Ben
Dowdell and Smith are among the WCC leaders. Payne leads the
WCC with 2.1 spg and is No. 10 in blocked shots with 0.9 bpg.
Harrison and Trasolini are tied at No. 3 with 1.5 bpg. Trasolini is
No. 2 in free throw percentage (90.5 percent) and No. 6 in field
goal shooting, at 51.9 percent. Smith is No. 4 in free throw
percentage (.875), No. 6 with 34.4 mpg, No. 9 with 14.0 ppg and No.
10 with 3.4 apg. Dowdell is No. 9 with 2.0 orpg.

Free Chances

Building a WCC All-Freshman team-type campaign this season, Robert
Smith has hit 21 of his 24 free throws in WCC play (87.5
percent) after hitting 55 of 81 (67 percent) in non-conference
play. Marc
Trasolini, a member of the WCC All-Freshman team last year, has
been a master at the free throw line during WCC play as well,
hitting 90.4 percent of his chances (19 of 21 chances). He is
hitting 81.0 percent of his chances overall (98 of 121). Trasolini
was 67.2 percent free throw shooter as a freshman (43 of 64).

As of Feb. 5, Santa Clara is No. 21 in the country in free
throws made and No. 18 nationally in free throws attempted,
according to statsheet.com. Santa Clara is 407 of 582 from the line
this season, knocking down almost 70 percent of its attempts. It is
scoring better than 25 percent of its points from the free throw
line this year. To hit the top 10 single season chart, Santa Clara
would need at least 538 made (1980-81) and 770 attempts
(2000-01).

Last season Santa Clara hit 434 of 613 free throws, making 71
percent of those, but free throws only accounted for 20 percent of
the team's total points.

Not Here

Marc
Trasolini is working to follow in the footsteps of career
blocks leader John
Bryant. Trasolini currently has 1.7 bpg. His 43 blocks are
better than percent of the Broncos 99 blocked shots this
season.

Trasolini tied John
Bryant's freshman record with 37 blocks last season so has
already topped his freshman total with at least eight games left.
The school record for blocks in a season was set by Bryant last
season when he collected 84 swats. Trasolini's 80 career blocks put
him at No. 5 already and he trails Kurt Rambis (93, 1976-80) by 13
blocks.

Niyi
Harrison is quietly blocking shots this season as well. He has
17 on the season which is currently No. 6 on the all-time freshman
list, passing Nic Vanos' 15 in 1981-82. He needs three more to pass
Sean
Denison's 19 in 2003-04.

Last Year to This Year

There are some interesting comparisons after Santa Clara's first
25 games last year and then this year. The following are a few of
the positives for the Bronco men's basketball team:

* Increased attendance from 20,586 (2009) to 29,933 (2010)

* Increased points per game from 64.8 (2009) to 65.1 (2010)

* Increased points scored from 1,620 (2009) to 1,628 (2010)

* Increased free throws made per game from 12.1 (2009) to 16.3
(2010)

* Increased free throws made total from 303 (2009) to 407
(2010)

* Increased free throws attempted total from 440 (2009) to 582
(2010)

* Increased free throw percentage from .689 (2009) to .699
(2010)

* Decreased turnovers per game from 16.6 (2009) to 15.4
(2010)

* Increased forced turnovers per game from 12.7 and 318 total
(2009) to 14.8 (2010) and 369 total

* Increased steals per game from 6.1 (2009) to 7.2 (2010)

Traz

Marc
Trasolini continues to put up big numbers this season. He has
seven games with 18+ points this season, including the 18 he scored
at Saint Mary's on Thursday.

Trasolini had a career-night at San Francisco on Jan. 23. He was
10 of 15 from the field, both career highs. His 26 points were also
a career high. Trasolini has scored 20+ five times this season,
including 22 vs. Harvard. He has scored 20+ six times in his
two-year career. Trasolini's previous career-best was 24 points at
New Hampshire on Jan. 4, 2009.

This season he hit a career-high three three's at both Houston
Baptist and Rice; and then vs Gonzaga he was a career-best 4 of 6
from beyond the arc. He is 16 of 42 from three-point land after not
attempting a single three his freshman campaign. Earlier this
season, Bronco head coach Kerry
Keating said he would like to see Trasolini shoot 10 three
pointers a game because he has that much confidence in his
shooting.

In Trasolini's his first 17 games he scored no fewer than seven
points (vs. SJSU). His 0-0 line from the free throw line vs.
Gonzaga was the first time since the San Diego game that he didn't
hit the free throw line. Trasolini has hit 98 of 121 free throws
this season, including hitting 39 of 44 free throws in the last 10
games (88.6 percent). He has had no attempts four times this year:
at SDSU, vs. USD, at LMU and vs. Gonzaga. On the season, he is
hitting better than 81 percent at the line and almost 28 percent of
Trasolini's points this year come from the charity stripe with
Trasolini scoring a team-high 352 points this year. Last year 21
percent of his points came from free throws (43 of 64 made (67%);
201 points total scored).

3 in Bronco Freshman Records List

Kerry
Keating and his freshmen have literally re-written the Bronco
record books the last three years as Keating and his staff's
recruiting efforts have more than paid off in building the Bronco
base.

In Keating's first year then-freshman Ben
Dowdell broke the freshman school record with 890 minutes
played. He also finished in the top 10 of four other categories.
Last season the Bronco freshmen broke or tied seven records. Kevin
Foster shattered five on his own, including breaking Kurt
Rambis' 32-year old record with 486 points scored. He also broke
Steve Nash's single season record, set when Nash was a senior, with
85 three-pointers, which was also a freshman record. In addition,
Marc
Trasolini broke or tied three of his own, including the single
season record for field goal percentage along with the freshman
record, hitting 68.1 percent.

And this year it's much of the same as three players are in the
top 10 of a number of categories. See left for the current
freshmen. Ray
Cowels is in the all-time Bronco freshman records in four
categories. Robert
Smith is in the top 10 of nine Bronco freshman categories and
Niyi
Harrison is in the top 10 of two categories. See the above Game
Notes for the complete list on page four.

The Broncos have had 13 different players have seen action this
season. Six of the 10 players have started at least 10 games
overall. The only player who has started in all 25 games this
season is Troy
Payne. SCU has 13 players who have appeared in a game this
season, but only seven players have played in all 25 games. They
are: Trasolini, Smith, Harrison, Cowels, Payne, Santos and
Alexander.